The following excerpts are from various sources about water
quality problems around the country and in Canada. Although certain
problems may seem isolated, I would encourage all moms concerned
about health to remember that you can not take drinking water
quality for granted! Water filtered by the Multi-Pure system could
resolve these quality issues at a very economical price and far
more conenvient ly than bottled. I encourage all readers to check
your local papers for stories about your local drinking water.

LONDON, ONTARIO, August 26, 2004 (Water Tech) - About 2,300
Kilworth-Komoka residents are without drinking water after a possible
diesel leak was detected in an area where well water is drawn,
The London Free Press reported.

The municipality, Middlesex Centre, is working on a plan to
distribute free water today. The advisory was issued yesterday
by the Middlesex-London Health Unit after London city workers
detected diesel fuel in the Thames River near an old London water
well field, Dale LeBritton, operations manager of the Ontario
Clean Water Agency, said in the article.

Dale LeBritton told the paper that he didn't know where the
diesel may have spilled into the water system. The agency is investigating
to determine the source of the fuel.

According to the article, officials aren't sure if diesel
made its way into the water system, but issued the advisory as
a precaution.

LeBritton said in the article that early samples will be back
within 24 hours, but more must be taken before the advisory can
be lifted. That means residents will have to wait until at least
Friday afternoon to see if the advisory will be lifted, the paper
reported.

Drinking water may be mystery outbreak culprit

PUT-IN-BAY, OH, August 27, 2004 (Water Tech) - More than 1,000
people have come down with a mysterious gastrointestinal illness
after visiting the area, and now investigators are turning their
attention to drinking water as a potential source of the outbreak,
The Associated Press (AP) said in an article reported by Mlive.com.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials have ordered
private well testing to determine whether they are connected to
and contaminating the village of Put-in-Bay's drinking water system.
The concern is that leaking septic tanks could be contaminating
well water and then flowing back into the clean drinking water,
the article said.

Officials from the Ohio EPA had tested drinking water from
public wells, which had tested negative. In the case of the private
wells, there is no evidence yet that they are being contaminated
by septic intrusion, Heidi Griesmer, an EPA spokeswoman, said
in the article.

"We know what's coming out of the plant is meeting water
quality standards," she told the AP. "We don't know
if there's contamination being introduced somewhere in the distribution
system."

The Ohio Department of Health said Aug. 26 that investigators
have talked with 1,020 people who say they fell ill after visiting
South Bass Island and the surrounding area, which is about halfway
between Toledo and Cleveland. Some say they were sickened after
visiting within the last week, according to the article.

About 40 people spent time in a hospital, the health department
said in the report.

The department has tested a handful of samples from those
who say they suffered from chills, fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
Those test results led investigators to begin focusing on whether
there could be any cross-contamination between private wells and
wastewater systems, the article stated.

In addition to inspections of auxiliary wells, the EPA asked
for increased monitoring of private water supplies. The health
department recommended island residents use bottled water or boil
their well water, according to the paper.

Lead contamination caused by fixtures, not pipes

ROCKVILLE, MD, August 30, 2004 (Water Tech) - Montgomery County's
initial school drinking water test results showed that high lead
levels were the result of fixtures, not pipes, NBC-4 reported.

The county may not begin remediation of thousands of school
plumbing fixtures found to have high levels of lead until the
end of the school year, officials said in the report. The Maryland
county is located next to Washington, DC, where widespread lead
testing took place earlier this year.

The county has tested lead levels in every public school water
source, including drinking fountains. Richard Hawes, Montgomery
schools' director of facility management, told The Washington
Post that the county will not begin to replace fixtures until
it has retested the 27,000 or so water sources in the schools.

"This could reach until the end of this year and even
beyond that," Kate Harrison, school spokeswoman, told the
news station. "We want to get a sense of the entire situation
before we begin a systematic solution to the problem."

Lead controversy spreads to CA school

NOVATO, CA, August 31, 2004 (Water Tech) - Rancho Elementary
School has shut down its water fountains indefinitely after the
discovery of dangerous levels of lead in some of the drinking
water, the Marin Independent-Journal reported.

Novato Unified School District officials said in the article
that because of the discovery, they plan to test the water at
all 15 schools in the district, but no timetable has been established.

Preliminary tests ordered by the district revealed that the
water from two fountains at Rancho Elementary School exceeded
the state and federal standard of 15 parts per billion. A reading
of 27 ppb was drawn from a porcelain drinking fountain, while
a 15.9 ppb level was drawn from a fountain in one classroom. But
17 other samples drawn from fountains throughout the school showed
readings of 7.2 or less. Thirteen were less than 5 ppb, the paper
reported.

Jim Davies, a district water consultant, said in the article
that the test results are preliminary and another round of tests
has also been conducted. The tests were ordered after school officials
received a call from ABC-7 News, which had commissioned its own
water testing at schools throughout the Bay Area.

Channel 7 told school officials there was lead in the drinking
water - the highest reading being 39 ppb - but it was unclear
how the station's consultants obtained the samples. School officials
sent notes home with students about the lead findings, and provided
bottled water to children yesterday, which was the first day of
their school year, the article said.

Lead contamination persists into new school year

SEATTLE, September 7, 2004 (Water Tech) - While the city's
public schools continue an ongoing effort of repairs and upgrades
to eliminate the lead contamination plaguing the district's water
supplies, most students will still see a familiar holdover from
last spring in the hallways: bottled-water dispensers, the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer reported.

In January, the district turned off fountains and began supplying
bottled water at those schools with plumbing systems more than
seven years old and commissioned tests at all schools, the paper
explained.

Students throughout the district also will see something new
this year: signs in the lavatories warning them not to drink the
tap water. The dispensers and signs reflect the consistent attempts
by the 47,500-student district to cope with a multimillion-dollar
problem of lead contamination in school water supplies, the article
said.

According to the paper, 58 schools will continue to receive
bottled water. Deliveries may stop at some of those schools within
a few months, as repairs are completed; others will stay on bottled
water for the entire school year or longer.

The Seattle schools recently signed a $683,000 contract with
Mountain Mist Water Co. of Tacoma to supply bottled water for
the 2004-05 school year to all schools currently receiving it.
That sum could be reduced as schools go off the bottled-water
program, the article stated.

States sue EPA over lack of water guidelines

ALBANY, NY and HARTFORD, CT, September 8, 2004 (Water Tech)
­ New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Connecticut
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed a federal lawsuit this
week challenging the decision of the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) not to issue national guidelines and standards for
harmful storm water pollution discharges from construction sites
that could effect drinking water supplies, according to a joint
press release.

The legal action was filed Sept. 7 in the US Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit in Manhattan.

"Dirty runoff from construction sites is one of the largest
sources of water pollution," Attorney General Spitzer said
in the release. "EPA knows this and agreed to address the
problem by setting strong national standards. But now EPA refuses
to act. States need these standards to protect the water we all
rely on for drinking, swimming, fishing and recreation."

Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal said in the release:
"We are vigorously challenging EPA to adopt a national policy
to properly protect local and national waterways. While Connecticut
has strong rules and tough enforcement, a lack of stringent nationwide
standards creates an unfair economic development advantage for
states with flimsy regulations."

Sediment and other storm water pollutants, such as oils, pesticides,
and heavy metals associated with the construction and development
of land, can significantly impair drinking water reservoirs, lakes,
rivers and coastal waters.

According to the release, EPA has acknowledged that polluted
runoff from construction sites can exceed that from undisturbed
sites by 1,000 times or more.

Under the Clean Water Act, EPA is required to promulgate technology-based
standards for industrial pollutant discharges, including discharges
associated with construction and land development, the release
said. Once issued by EPA, state agencies incorporate the standards
into permits for local construction and development activities.

Many states, including New York and Connecticut, already regulate
storm water pollution discharges associated with construction
and development of land. According to the release, by failing
to set minimal national standards for reducing these discharges,
New York and Connecticut allege that EPA has undermined these
states' efforts to protect their own waters and endangers interstate
waters.

On June 24, 2002, under a court order, EPA proposed guidelines
and standards for storm water pollution from the construction
and development industry, the release said. Despite EPA's legal
obligation to finalize these pollution controls, EPA announced
on April 26, 2004 that it would withdraw its proposal.

State to increase lead testing for school water

SEATTLE , September 9 2004 (Water Tech) - Gov. Gary Locke
announced on Wednesday that the state will provide $750,000 to
help school districts test for lead in elementary-school drinking
fountains, The Seattle Times reported.

According to the article, districts will be required to provide
a 25 percent match to receive the money, but such an assist should
help cash-strapped districts like Seattle, which has spent about
$2.25 million and estimates it could cost more than $6 million
to remedy its lead problems.

Locke said that there are no known cases of lead poisoning
caused by drinking water in the state, the article reported. Still,
the governor urged school districts to test their water.

Locke directed the state Board of Health to consider the issue
when it looks at school environmental standards later this year,
the paper stated.

In Seattle, what is perceived as "safe" could mean
the difference between the public spending $1.7 million for plumbing
fixes that meet health standards for lead and cadmium contamination
or more than $6 million to clean up drinking water, the article
explained.

Water Quality in the News The following information was recently gathered from a Drinking Water industry journal called Water Technology. The stories from around our nation point out...

AP PROBE FINDS DRUGS IN DRINKING WATERThe following is a transcript of the AP story on water found in the media this week: By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD - Associated Press Writers A vast...